A typical shopper today may use multiple sources of information to make a decision about what to buy, where to eat, what merchant or business to use, even where to hold a child's birthday party. For example, today's shopper may perform an on-line web search, visit a brick-and-mortar store, or even ask friends, family members, or the like to obtain information.
While more and more shoppers may be turning to on-line based searches, historically, such searches have been unable to supplant the roles taken by browsing in a physical store, or asking friends for recommendations. At least one reason for this may be that today's on-line based searches tend to lend themselves to focused searches when the shopper is fairly clear on what they want to buy. However, less focused “browsing” remains challenging for the on-line shopper, often providing confusing and sometimes useless results. For example, a shopper that may not know a lot about cameras, may still frequent a particular store to check out the camera selection, even if their intended purchase is from a different store, or ultimately over the Internet. Internet browsing, however, may result in a large quantity of time spent at the wrong websites, less informative websites, or the like. Thus, the kind of browsing done in a brick-and-mortar store that may lead to buying has often been difficult to transfer to the Internet.
Moreover, although a shopper may conduct their research for a purchase on-line, many shoppers will still seek out and consult with their friends regarding the proposed purchase. This may be the case, in spite of finding plenty of reviews from “experts.” This phenomenon may arise because shoppers still seek an opinion from someone they know and trust, and may share their “frame of reference.”
In addition, performing a search query for user relevant information may remain cumbrous. For example, products, and reviews and ratings of products may be arranged predominately by product or by a myriad of different companies that may provide the product or service. However, it is often difficult to find a review relevant to what the shopper may want, unless the shopper already has a specific product or company in mind. Thus, the shopper might have to perform several search queries to obtain relevant search results. Irrelevant search results mean that the shopper is less likely to find when they are looking for, which in turn may translate into lost opportunities for merchants, or other businesses, to prosper from the on-line shopping experience.
Once the shopper has selected to purchase the product or service, it may not be easy to provide their opinion about their purchase on-line. For example, the shopper has to choose between the store they purchased from, other stores, or a myriad of websites to provide their opinion. Unfortunately, other websites where the product is also advertised may not have access to the shopper's opinion. Thus, future searchers might not ever be aware of the shopper's purchase experience. Therefore, many businesses and shoppers are searching for new ways to make search results and feedback mechanisms more relevant to the shopper. Thus, it is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.